I currently have this one, was looking at programming for Mac but realised it wasn't really my thing and I didn't have interested in it. Although I use my iPhone/iPad everyday and would love to be able to do more then just use apps already made.

I currently have this one, was looking at programming for Mac but realised it wasn't really my thing and I didn't have interested in it. Although I use my iPhone/iPad everyday and would love to be able to do more then just use apps already made.

If there are any other good books you recommend please do, but I like the style the Apress authors have.

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Why not get both of them? But don't buy them brand new. Look on Amazon and/or eBay and get used copies. I've found used books like these for as little $1.00 (plus $4.00 or $5.00 shipping.) And I've received them in almost brand new condition. And even if they're a little worn, does it matter? It's the information they contain that matters.

Of course, for that kind of low price, you might end up with the previous edition which will lack info on some of the latest features. You can still learn from them. And once you've grasped the basics enough, it's not too difficult to Google for specific information that is newer than the books. (The Stack Overflow website has tons of questions-already-asked-with-answers-in-the-form-of-sample-code.)

If you can wait until March there'll be a new release of the Big Nerd Ranch iOS book. I don't have experience with the iOS book but I used their Mac development one when I was learning, and thought it was really good. From what I hear, this one is also good. You'll want to wait for the new edition though, as it's a pain in the bum to use books about old developer tools.

At some level you are trying to run before you have learned how to walk.

The underlying foundation of native Mac and iOS code is the same. If you didn't "get" Mac programming why do you expect you would iOS.

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I'm going to have to disagree. Prior to the release of the first iOS SDK I'd tinkered on and off for years with learning Cocoa and programming on the Mac. It just wasn't my thing.

Then the iOS SDK was released and I started learning how to use it and I "got" it. Something about it was a lot more exciting and engaging. Maybe it's because views alone are easier to handle then windows & views... Or maybe it's because the iOS's walled garden is a lot smaller than Mac OS's so one doesn't feel so lost when they're just beginning to learn their way around it. I actually just started looking into Cocoa again this year after years of not touching it, and I'm finding I know a lot more now because of what I've learned with the iOS SDK.

So, in my experience, iOS is an easier first Obj-C environment than Mac OS.

Staff Member

So, in my experience, iOS is an easier first Obj-C environment than Mac OS.

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It's a fair point, and I should definitely have prefaced that as I usually do with YMMV everyone learns things differently.

I do agree that Cocoa Touch is simpler than Cocoa in many ways, but the OPs current book isn't about Cocoa. It's about Obj-C and Foundation and relies on knowledge that should have been gained in "Learn C on the Mac".

My point was that at the Obj-C level in that Apress book as well as in Kochan and the recent BNR Obj-C book focus on Foundation and command line work for a reason. This work provides a foundation on which you can build, and if you don't get things at that level adding the complexity of a UI, any UI, just makes things harder.

It's a fair point, and I should definitely have prefaced that as I usually do with YMMV everyone learns things differently.

I do agree that Cocoa Touch is simpler than Cocoa in many ways, but the OPs current book isn't about Cocoa. It's about Obj-C and Foundation and relies on knowledge that should have been gained in "Learn C on the Mac".

My point was that at the Obj-C level in that Apress book as well as in Kochan and the recent BNR Obj-C book focus on Foundation and command line work for a reason. This work provides a foundation on which you can build, and if you don't get things at that level adding the complexity of a UI, any UI, just makes things harder.

B

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I understand completely what you are saying but i think i must have been misunderstood. It isn't that i don't get Mac programming when i tried to learn, its that it didn't interest me as much as iOS does. I just find the iPhone more interesting and would rather try to begin programming for that instead.

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